Turtle Tuesday

It's been so long since I've blogged regularly, and I do miss it. I think of things to blog about all the time, and then I just don't follow through. So here I go again, trying to start being consistent. :)

Since today is Tuesday, I thought I'd bring back Turtle Tuesday - woohoo! I haven't made a whole lot of turtles lately, but when I do I always wonder why. I love making turtles! Unlike dogs, they're all the same breed - at least when I make them they are. So I don't have to worry about whether to put on a nubby tail or a long skinny one, cropped ears or floppy ones - I just make a turtle. And I can decorate them however I want!

I recently got some awesome murrini from Lori and Kim called Electric Jellyfish, and it was perfect for turtle shell decorating.

Turtles in my shop aren't just a pretty shell. Nope. This one has chosen to decorate his shell in a rainbow of colored spots, as well as wear a symbol for Marriage Equality on his backside. I like to give turtles a nice backside because when they're moseying away, it can take a while. So you might as well have something appealing to look at back there. I even have an album on Facebook featuring my favorite Turtle Butts. 

Right now the Turtle section in my Etsy shop has seven turtles in it - that's pretty sparse. I do hope to add more soon! But if you purchase a turtle bead today,  put "tiny turtle" in the notes to seller and your turtle will travel with a leetle friend. 

Happy Turtle Tuesday!!!

Murrini Monday ~ 3-Peats

In today's edition of Murrini Monday, we're celebrating 3-Peats. What are 3-Peats, you ask? They are murrini blends of three different, but coordinating, murrini from Lori and Kim. And get this - when a blend of 3-Peats is sold out in their shop, Lori and Kim will make more! That's good thing for lampworkers who make a bead set using certain murrini, and then are asked to make that set or a similar one again. It's nice to know these blends will always be replenished.

I love the colors in this Airstream murrini blend. I had to have them. :)

Here is the Airstream murrini on a turtle. Turtles love murrini. 

This blend is called Electric Jellyfish. I had to buy it - for the awesome colors and for the cool name!

This turtle loves her Electric Jellyfish murrini. So stylish.

Happy Murrini Monday!!!

Critter Makeovers

Lately I've been itching to change up some of my critter bead designs. I don't mean the gradual changes that naturally take place over time - those just sort of happen as I get more experienced. What I wanted to do was to take critter beads I already make and try making them in a new way - sort of a critter makeover.

I started with an elephant. The blue one above is how I've been making them for the past year or longer. He's tall and almost slender (for an elephant), and his feet are close together near the bottom bead hole. This style also allows me to give the elephants tasty treats (like grapefruit slices of murrini).

                                      

I think this style is very wearable because of its shape and the fact that it's flat on the backside. But I still wanted to change things up.

Here is my new elephant design. His face and ears are similar to the ones I usually make, but his body is more elephant-like. The challenge for me was to have enough room for a decent trunk (no stubby elephant trunks!) because his face is much closer to his feet. This fella's trunk would drag on the ground if he didn't hold it up and to the side. 

This is the side view - a much fuller elephant body. I know, most makeovers involve unveiling a thinner look, but this is an elephant for pete's sake. 

I'd been wanting to update my turtle beads for a looooong time. I've made them basically the same way since I started making turtles. They are very basic - a round bead (decorated with spots, frit, murrini, encased in clear or abstract designs) to which I add a face, feet and tail. I've always put my turtle face -  whether it is transparent like the one above or opaque - coming right out of the top of shell. I knew that wasn't exactly how turtles actually look, but it was easy and still looked like a turtle. But I've always wanted to take the extra time to make a more realistic-looking shell (as realistic as my beads get, that is), and I finally did recently.

I think what was holding me back was that a) I wasn't sure I could do it, and b) I didn't know if I could still have fun decorating a new kind of shell. So above is my new turtle shell debut. It took a lot longer to make than my usual turtles, but it was worth it. It was fun to try something new. I think I'll keep making them this way, but I'll still make my other version, too. 

 

Another new bead for me this week is an alligator big hole bead. I had gotten a request for this a while back and I turned it down because I didn't think I could do it. Turns out I could, and it was fun. :)

So what do you think? Should I stick with my tried-and-true critters or keep exploring new versions of them? Any other critters need a makeover?

Turtle Tuesday ~ Turtle to the Rescue!

If you love turtles, you will love them even more after watching this video showing one turtle helping  another. We could learn a lot from turtles. :)

And here's my example of a helpful turtle. This one is transporting an octopus around ~ and he's even smiling while doing it. :)

In celebration of Turtle Tuesday, I've marked down the Turtle Taxi bead. It will be on sale for the rest of the day. There are still two other turtle beads in my shop that are on sale. You can find them in my Turtle section.

HAPPY TURTLE TUESDAY!

Turtle Tuesday ~ Fall Edition

Today I have actual living (not glass!) turtles to show you. We saw these leaf turtles during a trip to the zoo over the summer. Isn't it cool how their shells look like leaves? And the turtles are flat like leaves, too. I'm not sure why they look like this - maybe to hide from turtle hunters? I hope the disguise works.

          This is my version of a leaf turtle. He's not flat, but he's covered in leaf murrini. I don't think he's fooling anyone.

And this is the Turtle Tuesday Deal of the Day. I just marked this sweetheart of a turtle down to $13 - but just for today.

HAPPY TURTLE TUESDAY!

Turtle Tuesday

What's better than a turtle? Two turtles! 

I've been busy making mini turtles and turning them into earrings. 

 I love making earrings that don't match. At first glance, these turtle earrings do match, but I slightly altered their shells. One is green with periwinkle spots outlined by blue. The other shell is periwinkle, with green spots outlined by blue. Everything else matches.

At a recent trip to a local bead store, I bought a strand of these tiny antique bronze hearts. I love them! And because I also love turtles, I wire-wrapped this pair with the little hearts. ♥♥

And now for the Turtle Deal of the Day - this patchwork turtle is sporting a whole bunch of rosebud101 murrini on her shell. Melted in together, the murrini reminds me of a patchwork quilt. I've marked this turtle down from $14 to $10!

Happy Turtle Tuesday!

Murrini Monday!!!

That's right, Murrini Mondays are back! And for that matter, I'm back, too. I can't believe the last time I blogged was in July. So now that the school year is underway and I'm kid-free much of the time, I plan to be more regular - about blogging! So let's dive right in and I'll show you some of the awesome murrini I've been using.

This turtle features four slices of Lori and Kim murrini, all encased in clear. I'm not much into symmetry or making everything match, so I used four different slices of murrini, a twistie and some frit to decorate the shell before encasing it. I love the random color surprises.

Here's a newer style of owl bead I like to call patchwork. Before adding the eyes and other features, I cover the owl's chest will all sorts of random murrini - my collection of rosebud101 murrini works great!  Doesn't it have a patchwork look to it?

I've been making miniature dinosaur beads to benefit the JDRF (Dinobeadies for Diabetes), and they are perfect for showing off one slice of murrini (on each side!). These two brightly colored dinos are wearing murrini from FlamingEck - love them!

Thanks for coming back to visit on Murrini Mondays! I'll have new murrini to show off next week, and new posts in between. Have a great week!

Turtle Bead GIVEAWAY!

Time for a giveaway!!!

Here are the rules:
1. Leave a comment after this post - it can be about anything. Also, make sure there's a way for me to contact you.
2. For an extra entry - like Maybeads on Facebook and share my giveaway post there. Then leave a separate second comment on my blog saying you shared it.
Easy Peasy right?

I'll draw a name tonight, May 6, around 9pm Chicago time.

Thanks for playing!

Give Me The Finger

My current turtle finger companion.

That's right. I'm looking for a few good fingers, so flip 'em this way. I'd love to start selling my turtle rings (I wear one, my kids have them and my sister has one that glows in the dark), but I'd still like to experiment on someone and see how I do with sizing a ring for someone I don't see in person. I've really only used copper wire for the wire-wrapping, but hopefully I'll eventually venture out to different wires. So if you like turtles and would actually wear a glass turtle ring (made with copper wire), please leave me a comment with a way to reach you after this post. Also, make sure you know the ring size of the finger you would wear it on, and I'll contact one or two people from the comments to get the info. to make and size a ring. Thanks in advance!

Another angle of my ring.

Murrini Monday ~ On Sunday!

Murrini Monday is running on Sunday night this week due to a blog scheduling conflict tomorrow.

Boy did I have fun with my murrini this past week! And my turtles were the lucky benefactors of that fun.

Turtle butt murrini. Sometimes the murrini is placed just so. Not intentional.

The little turtle has fallen and he can't get up! Don't worry, I flipped him back up after the photo shoot. He's a tiny turtle with a pea green shell and lavender striped murrini topped with clear.

This turtle had murrini fever. She needed a bigger shell to support her murrini habit.

When murrini goes bad. I had this excellent idea for a googly eyed turtle using the red "O" murrini from my SWAK mix from loriandkim. Sadly, not all ideas are good ones. But luckily, my girls LOVE him, and he'll be added to their massive wonky bead collection.

Turtles!

I started making turtle beads because my sister has pet turtles, and she kept asking me when I was going to make them already. So I finally tried one. And I loved it. They're a fairly basic sculptural bead to make because you start with a round bead that doesn't have to be shaped. But there are still the usual challenges of keeping parts of the bead out of the flame while you add features. The turtle above is one I made almost two years ago (like that flashy red background?). My turtle beads have evolved over time - I've experimented with colors and am now able to keep the eyeballs from melting into the head. They've even grown toes. The turtle below is a more recent creation.

My friend Eileen, of DorsetHillBeads has just started making turtle beads, and they are sweet! Meet Lucy. She's ready for love.

And I love this pink girlie turtle with her strategically placed heart. Plus, she's already wire-wrapped and ready to go.

And check out this new sea turtle in glassbead's shop. It would make a really cool pendant, and I expect it will be swimming out of her shop soon.

Fun with Murrini

I've been having so much fun playing around with my new Murrini from loriandkim on Etsy, and I wanted to show some of my results. The top picture is a pea green turtle with a slice of murrini topped with clear glass on its shell. I love the magnifying effect the clear glass has on the tiny piece of murrini. I had to change where I put the bead hole to make these turtles - now the hole runs horizontally through the shell. But that's the only way I could properly show off the murrini on the top of the shell.

This one is a tiny turtle in pea green, with a really cool murrini slice topped with clear on the top of its shell. Again, the bead hole runs sideways through the bead - which would work nicely for rings.

On Saturday, which was my birthday, I took advantage of the sale Lori and Kim had on their new website loriandkim.com and stocked up on even more murrini. Have a look around their glass candy shop, and see if you can guess which four murrini packs I picked.

It's True! My Beads Really are Realistic!

Last spring we went to Wildlife Prairie State Park in Peoria, Illinois, and spent the night in a one-room log cabin on the park grounds. It was our second visit to the park, and we spent the day wandering the grounds and looking at all the animals. When we got to the indoor exhibit for snakes and turtles, I nearly squealed with delight to find these two turtles posing, one atop the other. I quickly got out my camera (I don't know why I had to act quickly - these two weren't going anywhere) and snapped a couple shots. All this time I had thought my stacked turtle beads were purely fantasy. But now I know the truth. Turtles really do like to horse around.